This invention relates to a razor handle for detachably supporting a shaving unit of the pivotal type. Such a unit comprises one or more blades supported in a housing. The housing which is usually of plastics material has a pair of spaced lugs located on its rearward face and formed with recesses for receiving a pair of pivot pins of a razor handle. In this way, the shaving unit is supported on the handle for pivotal movement about an axis containing said pivot pins and parallel to the cutting edge of the, or each, blade. Spring means are additionally provided on the handle for applying torque to the unit about the pivotal axis of the pins.
In known razor handles of the type referred to above, the handle further comprises a pair of spaced apart supporting arms carrying the pivot pins at their forward ends and means for urging the pivot pins away from each other against a return spring to release the unit from the pins.
The pivotal mounting of a shaving unit in the manner described above is believed to improve shaving efficiency by enabling the shaving unit, and hence the blade or blades, to follow the contours of the face or other part of the body as the razor is moved across the part being shaved, since the unit can pivot relatively to the handle.
It is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,828 to provide a razor having a twin blade unit mounted on a handle by pivot mounting means which allow the blade unit to tilt about a first axis parallel to the blade edges and also to tilt about a second axis lying in a plane perpendicular to and bisecting the blade edges so that the opposite ends of the blade unit can move relatively to one another and to the handle.
A similar result is achieved by the razor described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,663 except that this razor utilises a blade unit holder which is itself pivoted on pivot pins parallel to the length of the unit but spaced far to the rear of the blade edges so that the desired effect of pivoting about an axis close to the blade edges is lost. Each end of the blade unit holder is independently spring mounted on the pivot pins to allow the ends of the blade unit holder to move independently toward and away from the handle.
GB-A-2,116,470 also described a razor having a blade unit mounted for pivotal movement about first and second fixed axes as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,152,828 referred to above, and in which a pair of spaced apart blade-unit supporting arms, carrying pivot pins at their forward ends, are mounted for movement in unison about the second axis.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved razor handle of this type.